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Overview

Second chance for Meza

Mexico's oldest football club are about to embark on the
biggest challenge of their long history when they head east for the
FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2007. The country's third
representatives in the event, CF Pachuca will have two goals in
mind when they touch down in the Land of the Rising Sun: to improve
on Necaxa's third-place finish in the competition's
inaugural year and to become the first Mexican side to reach the
final.

Leading
Los Tuzos on their mission will be Enrique Meza, a man who
has experienced the highs and lows of top-level management.
Although famed for his economical way with words, he spoke to
FIFA.com about the challenge of returning to the
country where he endured one of the biggest disappointments of his
career. With the big event just a matter of weeks away, could the
stern-faced coach finally be about to get some payback.

Success and despairKnown in Mexico as
Ojitos (Little Eyes), Meza rose to prominence at the end
of the nineties when he steered firm relegation candidates Morelia
and Toros Neza to salvation, even converting the latter into
domestic contenders and taking them to a league play-off final. It
was with Toluca that he enjoyed his finest hours, however, guiding
the provincial side to three league titles out of a possible five
between 1998 and 2000.

Having built up a reputation for fashioning enterprising,
attack-minded teams, Meza was rewarded with the ultimate accolade
at the end of 2000 when he took over as Mexico coach.

No sooner had he settled into the post than his luck began to
change, his appointment coinciding with a dramatic downturn in
El Tri's fortunes as their form deserted them and the
defeats came thick and fast. Following Mexico's early
elimination from the FIFA Confederations Cup Korea/Japan 2001, a
tournament they went into as defending champions, and a sluggish
start to the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the 2002 FIFA World
Cup Korea/Japan, Meza was given his marching orders. His reign had
lasted a matter of months.

Yet that was not the end of his coaching travails.
Unsuccessful stints with Atlas and Cruz Azul followed, and his fall
from grace was complete when his return to Toluca, the club he had
taken to the heights just a few short years before, lasted just 12
games.

Another bite of the cherryFortunately, salvation was at hand. Left coachless just a day
after claiming the 2006
Clausura championship, Pachuca quickly turned to Meza to
fill the breach, an appointment widely regarded in Mexican
footballing circles as the luckless coach's last chance to
salvage his reputation.

Having got off to a stumbling start, the club's directors
kept faith with the former national boss and were promptly rewarded
with a glut of trophies. After becoming the first Mexican outfit to
win a CONMEBOL tournament when they landed the 2006 Copa
Sudamericana following a fine second-leg win away to Colo Colo of
Chile, Meza's men quickly added the 2007
Clausura trophy, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup and the
North American SuperLiga.

An opportunity from on highThat Champions' Cup success brought with it a ticket to
Japan and the FIFA Club World Cup, and a chance for Meza to
exorcise the ghosts of one of the worst chapters in his coaching
career. Not that the 59-year-old has retribution on his mind.

"I don't look upon it as a chance for revenge," he
replies when reminded of his previous trip to the Far East six
years ago. "I just think that God has given me another
opportunity."

Los Tuzos' amazing 18-month run of success, which has
brought two league titles and three international cup triumphs, has
come at something of a cost. Burdened with a workload that even
Europe's major powers would baulk at, Pachuca are starting to
feel the effects and are well off the pace in the 2007
Apertura championship. Even so, Meza is determined to keep
driving his players hard.

"The team is working really well," he says. "We
always go flat out and that's what we need to keep doing. We
need to keep working to get back to the level we were at
before."

While AC Milan and Boca Juniors may be most people's
favourites to contest the final on 16 December, with the identity
of two of the qualifiers yet to be revealed, including
Pachuca's African opponents in the quarter-finals, the wily
Mexican is reluctant to make predictions, mindful of the need to
show respect to his opponents.

Assuming the Mexicans come through that test, a semi-final with
Boca awaits, and beyond that a possible final with the Italian
aristocrats. Great though the challenge is, as far as Meza is
concerned, it pales in significance with the task he faced as
Mexico coach. "There's nothing bigger than coaching your
country," he comments, before ruling out all possibility of a
return to the national hotseat. "The current coach is doing a
fine job and I've had my chance."

As he takes his leave, though, even the taciturn Meza has to
acknowledge that in football anything is possible: "Only God
knows what he has in store for me."